The sequence of studies prescribed for pupils of the normal school
according to the decree of March, 1916, is also worthy of notice.
Immediately following, and based upon the intermediate schools which,
as described above, were discarded after trial, the normal school
required four years for the teachers’ diploma, after which the student
might proceed to higher studies for the degree of teacher of modern
languages in two years or that of teacher of languages in normal school
in three years, or that of teacher of philosophy in any institution
in six years. A commendable gain of one year in each of these was
effected, and this feature is to be embodied in the new provisions now
under consideration. In addition, the new project of educational law
outlines a teacher’s course of four years, clearly differentiating
between the general or cultural and the pedagogical or professional
courses. The former are assigned to the first three years as required;
the latter are reserved for the last year, constituting an intensive
curriculum of pedagogical history and methods and practice teaching
in the required annexed practice school. The completion (1918) of the
Normal School Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, named in honor of the founder
of popular education in South America, is to be noted. This school,
capable of accommodating 1,000 pupils and equipped with the most modern
apparatus, is worthy of comparison with the finest schools in the other
countries educationally most advanced.